No. 73 Giv chides Bizhan for failing to defeat Forud

Ferdfowsi, Shahnameh
Safavid: Qazvin, 1576–1577
Painter: Siyavosh

Opaque watercolours, ink and gold on paper

Private Collection, III.295

As in
No. 50,
champions of Iran have attacked the castle of
Forud,
half-brother of king Key Khosrow, and Forud has defeated them with
his arrows. The Persian hero Bizhan remarks scornfully on their
army’s lack of success to his father Giv and the latter strikes him
with his whip. Though using a composition similar to that of
No. 50,
this version has moved the focus of attention from Forud in the upper
part of the scene to a bad-tempered incident in the lower: that is
from epic warfare to human foible. The folio is from a manuscript
probably made for Shah Esma‘il II (1576-1577).